Pickups that are wound hot

hotpickups

just thought I'd ask a question albeit a possible daft one. If pickups are wound hot I.e. around 10k. Would they not clean up, using the guitar's volume knob, as well as a set of pickups wound between 7-8k? In other words standard or lo wind PAFs?

Roland

A hotter pickup has more turns of wire, which means greater resistance, and you lose more of the treble frequencies.

If you’re interested I can demonstrate this with a Wapping Wharf Telecaster bridge pickup, which is tapped part way through the coil.

You've also got to contend with the way tone changes as you turn down the volume. It can get brighter or darker depending on whether the guitar has a treble bleed circuit.

hotpickups

Roland said:

A hotter pickup has more turns of wire, which means greater resistance, and you lose more of the treble frequencies.

If you’re interested I can demonstrate this with a Wapping Wharf Telecaster bridge pickup, which is tapped part way through the coil.

But I'm getting more gain from one guitar than the other guitar at the same number on the guitar volume. I can only put it down to pickups being hotter. Same pots etc I.e. linear 

Roland

Yes, there’s more gain from more turns, but less treble because the extra turns are absorbing some of the higher frequencies. You can compensate for the loss of treble through changes in the pickup design and/or guitar wiring.

Here’s the example: a single coil bridge pickup switching between full coil and tapped part way. The tapped sound is brighter.

https://i.imgur.com/1lKpfy3.mp4



That brightness is caused by the resistance of the coil. There can be other factors, such as the way the guitar circuitry, cable, and amp input impedance interact with the lower coil resistance. In the clip I’ve tried to minimise these by not changing the guitar volume, and running a short cable into a solid state amp.

hotpickups

I'm thinking I should've gone with lo winds PAF style etc then

Sassafras

hotpickups said:

just thought I'd ask a question albeit a possible daft one. If pickups are wound hot I.e. around 10k. Would they not clean up, using the guitar's volume knob, as well as a set of pickups wound between 7-8k? In other words standard or lo wind PAFs?

I would've thought you'd know with a name like that.

hotpickups

Sassafras said:

hotpickups said:

just thought I'd ask a question albeit a possible daft one. If pickups are wound hot I.e. around 10k. Would they not clean up, using the guitar's volume knob, as well as a set of pickups wound between 7-8k? In other words standard or lo wind PAFs?

I would've thought you'd know with a name like that.

LOL I was waiting for that

Funkfingers

hotpickups said:
I'm getting more gain from one guitar than the other guitar

Interesting.

Gain is a feature of amplification.

What you are getting from the different pickups is greater or lower signal into an amplifier whose control settings have not been adjusted between guitars.

How gently or vigorously you play the strings is a factor. So is the distance between each pickup and the vibrating string(s). A low output pickup, set close to the strings, can sound louder than a "hot" one set low.

p90fool

I changed the magnet in my hottest (13k) pickup to counteract some of that effect, making it slightly brighter but far more touch sensitive, like a lower wind pickup.

What pickup is it? You may be able to mod it to be closer to your taste for a fiver or so.

hotpickups

p90fool said:

I changed the magnet in my hottest (13k) pickup to counteract some of that effect, making it slightly brighter but far more touch sensitive, like a lower wind pickup.

What pickup is it? You may be able to mod it to be closer to your taste for a fiver or so.

It's an oil city set

Roland

In which case call Ash at Oil City and ask him what your options are. Worst case is that you have to buy a new pickup, and sell the old one in the Classifieds.

hotpickups

Funkfingers said:

hotpickups said:
I'm getting more gain from one guitar than the other guitar

Interesting.

Gain is a feature of amplification.

What you are getting from the different pickups is greater or lower signal into an amplifier whose control settings have not been adjusted between guitars.

How gently or vigorously you play the strings is a factor. So is the distance between each pickup and the vibrating string(s). A low output pickup, set close to the strings, can sound louder than a "hot" one set low.

I'll check the distance between the two. I forgot about that. I did try to match my playing on each guitar though. 

hotpickups

Roland said:

In which case call Ash at Oil City and ask him what your options are. Worst case is that you have to buy a new pickup, and sell the old one in the Classifieds.

Ok will do. Alternatively I was going to sell my Montys humdinges on as they are out of one of my guitars now. So I can put them in instead. Trouble is I'd want them to be chrome / Nickle covers not aged nickle that they are. A cosmetic problem only but I guess I could always ask monty to change them

hotpickups

I think I'm getting to the bottom of it. The loom I put into my Les Paul last year uses TVT (True Vintage Taper) CTS LOG pots. Which I have to say are a massive improvement than the pots that the Gibson came standard with in terms of cleaning up. They felt more like LINEAR pots but they are LOG. My new guitar uses CTS LINEAR volume pots which are still great but just more raging at say 6 compared to the Les Paul. Not a big issue as I'll just have to turn down lower to clean up but in a live situation that could be a big turn of a knob mid solo etc

ESBlonde

Pots are all a bit different. They are sold with an acceptable % of tollorance and so two 'identical' pots from the same manufacturer can be 20% different if one is Just 10% low and the other 10% high of the stated value for example.

Skipped

I am giving an opinion here. (Not an answer based on technical expertise).

It seems to me that the  "hot" pickups that have emerged in the last few years are more sophisticated than the hot pickups that were introduced by (for example) Gibson many years ago.

I put a Crawler bridge pickup (15k) into a fifties Gibson Les Paul.

Doug and Pat haven't done that. Why haven't they done that ?

My impression is that it was superb with the bridge volume on 9. And settings below 9.

(It was also very impresssive on "10" but was not quite my thing).

And so.....I take my hat off to Bare Knuckle. This ain't no Brutal pickup. It is magnificent.

It is not currently  in the guitar. It was just an experiment. But never say never.

hotpickups

It's definitely the LOG vs LINEAR pots I've learnt now. As mentioned the pots that were in the gibson originally which is a 1982 Les Paul really were atrocious but they may have been worn out of course. The new LOG loom that went in put all that correct and I presumed they were LINEAR. They aren't they are LOG. Hence the difference in my 2 guitars. All sorted thankfully now I understand what I'd need to do if I choose to. Thanks for the comments though